As a penalty, I decided to suspend myself from this week's game - there are no rules that I broke or anything that meant I had to, I just felt is was an appropriate way of reminding myself that basketball is supposed to be about fitness, camaraderie, fun, team, enjoyment, and if I'm going to take it to seriously, I shouldn't be playing. I emailed my team and told them my decision, and resigned myself to not playing today.
It turned out that one of our other guys wasn't going to be able to play this week, though, so I was asked to consider playing, and I chose to use the AFL model of taking a guilty plea, which reduced my "points", so I could play (guess I'm now ineligible for the Brownlow...), but any more indiscretions, and it was a guaranteed suspension.
So, I played, we won by about 20, I scored 14, and really enjoyed the game. As I was driving home, I started to think about the difference between redemption of that form - where I'm given another chance, an opportunity to dust myself off and get up and play again, rather than the "you're guilty, you've stuffed it, so there's a penalty to be served". Instead of sitting at home, feeling sorry for myself, guilty that I'd messed up, and guilty that because of it, our team had to suffer (even if that was only because they didn't have an extra sub!), I had the opportunity to show that it was a mistake, that's not how I want to function, and that I can do better.
(As an aside, I did also wonder where I would have felt as good if we had lost, or if I hadn't scored any points, but I think in the end, it was the opportunity to get back on the horse that gave me the feelings of redemption, rather than the end result. One could argue, of course, that the result was due to the redemption, but things are starting to get circular and maybe I'm analyzing too much.)
In short, though, when we think about redemption and forgiveness for those around us, what's our response? Should we penalise people, teaching them a lesson, drumming into them that they've messed up and haven't met whatever standard we've set or they've set? What would happen instead if we, individually, and in our faith communities, gave people the opportunity to show us and (probably more importantly) themselves that they are better than that, that it was a mistake, and they're still a part of our life?
That's certainly the perspective I get from Jesus, that grace looks much more like the second type of redemption than the first, and that God's focus is far more on getting us dusted off, back in the game, back to our best, rather than sitting at home feeling sorry for ourselves.
